A healthy lawn or landscape provides ecological benefits for air, soil and water quality as well as promoting a psychological “good feeling” effect on people. It prevents erosion, reduces noise, provides wildlife habitat, and creates a cooling effect during warm weather. How can you plant or maintain a natural lawn at your home or business?
For your home:
- Recycle lawn clippings by leaving them on the lawn after mowing or put clippings in a compost pile.
- Select the appropriate grass species for Minnesota.
- Water during the cooler times of day – early morning or evening.
- Use rain sensors connected to irrigation systems if you have such systems.
- Use natural organic fertilizers such as Milorganite, commercially prepared manure, grass clippings, phosphate rock, or potash.
- Ask your lawn service to provide organic lawn treatments.
- Plant pollinator-friendly gardens in lawn areas that are difficult to maintain slopes, for example.
- Choose to think of your lawn as healthy rather than perfect.
For your business or institution:
- Research the University of Minnesota webinars on pesticide safety and certification and growing eco-healthy turf for those who maintain their own landscapes or customers’ sites.
- Use salt-tolerant turfgrass mixtures developed by University of Minnesota researchers in partnership with MNDOT to conserve water.
- Plant pollinator-friendly native plants in pesticide-free areas on commercial property which contributes to the diversity of life as pollinators are vital to our food system.
- Use rain sensors for landscape irrigation to conserve water.
- Use organic fertilizers such as Milorganite, commercially prepared manure, phosphate rock, or potash.